ISIS Forming Alliance With Al-Qaeda in Libya to Plot Terror Attacks

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(Photo Reuters/Stringer)An armed motorcade belonging to members of Derna's Islamic Youth Council, consisting of former members of militias from the town of Derna, drive along a road in Derna, eastern Libya, October 3, 2014. The group pledged allegiance to the Islamic State on October 3, 2014 local media reported.(Photo: Reuters/Social media via Reuters TV)Men in orange jumpsuits purported to be Egyptian Christians held captive by the Islamic State kneel in front of armed men along a beach said to be near Tripoli, in this still image from an undated video made available on social media on February 15, 2015. Islamic State released the video on Sunday purporting to show the beheading of 21 Egyptian Christians kidnapped in Libya. In the video, militants in black marched the captives to a beach that the group said was near Tripoli. They were forced down onto their knees, then beheaded. Egypt's state news agency MENA quoted the spokesman for the Coptic Church as confirming that 21 Egyptian Christians believed to be held by Islamic State were dead.(Photo: Reuters/Asmaa Waguih)Relatives and neighbours of Egyptian Coptic men killed in Libya chant pro-army slogans during a protest while carrying crosses in al-Our village, in Minya governorate, south of Cairo, February 16, 2015. Thousands of traumatized mourners gathered on Monday at the Coptic church in al-Our village south of Cairo, struggling to come to terms with the fate of compatriots who paid a gruesome price for simply seeking work in Libya. Thirteen of 21 Egyptians beheaded by Islamic State came from the impoverished dirt lanes of al-Our, violence that prompted the Egyptian military to launch an air strike on Islamic State militant targets in Libya.(Photo: Reuters/Asmaa Waguih)The cousin, mother and wife (L-R) of Samuel Alham, one of 27 Egyptian Coptic Christian workers kidnapped in the Libyan city of Sirte, mourns in front of the family's house in Al-Our village, in Minya governorate, south of Cairo, Jan. 21, 2015.(Photo: Reuters/Goran Tomasevic)A group of teenage boys move towards Islamic State posts in Sirte, Libya on March 16, 2015

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Islamic State and al-Qaeda have formed an unholy alliance in southern Libya to launch more attacks in that country under the leadership of one of the world's most wanted men who was earlier believed to have been killed, Libya's defense minister says.

Forty-five-year-old Mokhtar Belmokhtar, former military commander of al-Qaeda in the Maghreb is leading IS fighters who survived Libyan forces' attacks on the terror group in a battle to retake Sirte last year, Defense Minister Mahdi Barghathi told the U.K.'s Daily Telegraph newspaper.

"Isil and al-Qaeda have never attacked each other here and now we have evidence that they are actively cooperating," the minister was quoted as saying. "Al-Qaeda is providing logistics and support to help Isil re-group and launch attacks."

The official added that Belmokhtar, who is originally from Algeria, is alive and guiding force behind the reforming of IS and al Qaeda terrorist operations as per the country's intelligence agency.

Belmokhtar, who led an attack on a gas plant in Algeria in 2013 in which 37 Western hostages were killed, was believed to have been killed in an airstrike last year, but his body was not recovered.

A Libya intelligence report estimates that about 700 IS terrorists have re-grouped in the valleys and desert areas south of the city of Bani Walid, and another 3,000 terrorist fighters from different groups, including al-Qaeda, are operating in the country.

The development endangers the lives of Christians as well.

Last month, the U.S.-based persecution watchdog group International Christian Concern revealed that a group of Egyptian Christians in the Libyan city of Misrata weren't able to return due to threats.

About two years ago, IS militants beheaded 21 Coptic Christians kidnapped in Libya and later released the video, titled "A Message Signed With Blood to the Nation of the Cross," which sent shockwaves throughout the Christian world. Coptic Orthodox Patriarch Tawadros II officially registered the 21 Copts as martyrs of the Church last year.

"These men paid the ultimate price, but gave us a cause to advocate for all those persecuted; they also showed us that there was a level of evil that we must all stand in solidarity against, and a level of courage, faithfulness and defiance that we must all aspire to," said Bishop Amba Angaelos, general bishop of the Coptic Orthodox Church, during the one year anniversary of the massacre last February.

The American Center for Law Justice said Thursday that it has sent a letter to Nikki Haley, the permanent representative of the United States to the U.N., urging the U.S. government to press its international allies in taking action against the ongoing genocide of Christians in the Middle East and North Africa.

"Since March 17, 2016, it has been the official position of the U.S. that ISIS is committing genocide against Christians and other religious minorities, and we urge you to further that official U.S. policy at the United Nations," said the letter sent to Haley.